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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27420901">Defenders of the Sun</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chulane/pseuds/Chulane'>Chulane</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Magic: The Gathering (Card Game)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, At least in my opinion, Azorius Senate, F/M, Golgari Swarm, Immortal sun (magic the gathering), Ixalan (Magic: The Gathering), More sensible then the real thing, Pre-Canon, Ravnica (Magic: The Gathering), Selesnya Conclave</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-11-06</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-11-08</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 23:35:39</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>3,494</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27420901</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chulane/pseuds/Chulane</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Hey what would have happened if Jace and Vraska decided to stay on Ixalan and guard the Immortal Sun from Bolas. Well this is what I think would have happened. I tried this before but didn't like how I wrote it, so I am trying again!</p><p>If your just here for Jace and Vraska being adorable skip to chapter two!</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Jace Beleren/Vraska</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>8</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. The Beginning</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>A few years ago I met the strangest child, she had black and white skin and was surrounded by golden moths, she could not have been ten. She introduced herself as Animatou and asked if she could tell me a story. At first the story and everything she said made no sense to me, I had never heard of the names of the people and places she mentioned. When I finally mention this to her, she explained that what she was saying was not real, but only stories; visions she had of places unimaginably far away, in times that did not happen. This is the first story she told me. She named it "Defenders of the Sun: What if Vraska and Jace Stayed on Ixalan and Defended the Immortal Sun From Bolas!"<br/>She could work on her titles.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>"Wait please Vraska! I'm not saying an absolute no, but please I don't want to do that to you."</p>
<p>“Take my memories! Make me a double-agent!"</p>
<p>Jace slowly stood up, his intricate white tattoos were visible in the setting Ixalan sun. He looked up at the thing set in the ceiling. It must have had a diameter of three meters, heavy gold bars crisscrossed to conceal a greenish glow in the flat disk. Carved on the gold the symbol of a circle set inside a triangle. The crest of a government from another world. The human Jace stood as an alien in this world, even if his mud soaked clothes and unwashed hair gave no inclination of his otherworldly origins.</p>
<p>He looked back to his friend, his fearless captain, his fellow alien. Unlike Jace, she was a bit more conspicuous as an outsider. Green skin with black and yellow eyes, and a waving mass of snakelike tendrils on her head. She was a gorgon, the race of the fabled medusa. She looked up at Jace and repeated herself.</p>
<p>"What other option do we have?"</p>
<p>Jace's face creased deeply with concern. "Let's think, we need to make sure this is the right move."</p>
<p>There was a crash from the floor above and a monstrous bellow and the sounds of clashing magic and steel. </p>
<p>"And we need time to think," Jace said annoyed. "Here help me reach the Immortal Sun."</p>
<p>Vraska and Jace moved from the rubble they had been sitting on to the center of the room. Underneath the glowing artifact, the Immortal Sun it was called, it had two uses; one was that it prohibited outside forces from leaving this world, trapping these two on this plane. Its other purpose was that it functioned as a powerful battery of mana. It was said anyone who touched the sun became a god in strength and magic. </p>
<p>Putting her fingers together she gave Jace a boost so that he could touch the gold bars of the artifact. The outside observer would have seen Jace as nothing more than a pretty face, fit, but nothing to be afraid about, he didn't even carry weapons with him. Yet Jace's true strength lay with his magic, he could manipulate minds. A mind mage that with the help of the Immortal Sun's power, could bend others' reality to his will.</p>
<p>When Jace's hand touched the Sun he felt the rush of magic. He would not have called himself a god, but with the new flow of mana and his years of experience, he suddenly knew he could do things he never dreamed of being able to do.</p>
<p>Jace's consciousness spread out through the surrounding city and the room above. He felt and touch the minds of around two dozen beings. He was surprised to find that among them there were only a single human the others being a menagerie of mythical beings. Yet this world had no concept of Mind Mages, and therefore their minds were left unguarded and without defense from intrusion. Within seconds the sounds of battle from above quieted and the beings stood still, minds frozen and lost in a haze.</p>
<p>"Wow… that's a lot of power..." Jace said eyes aglow with blue mana. "Okay, we should have some time to think now. I also stopped Azor from leaving." Jace said as Vraska lowered him back to the floor.</p>
<p>Vraska gave him a quizzical maybe even concerned look. Jace shrugged in response.</p>
<p>"Any information could help, even a madman's info."</p>
<p>Jace's face was set with grim determination. For the past two months, they had searched the world for this artifact. Vraska had come to the world of Ixalan having been sent by a powerful being she did not know. It was not until a few minutes ago that they learned that Vraska's employer was not just an avid collector of interesting and magically powerful rocks, but instead was a demon in the flesh. An ancient dragon with the sole goal to be the lone god of the multiverse. Jace had been driven from the world he was on by this demon, as the devil massacred an entire plane to make an undead army.</p>
<p>"Nicol Bolas." Jace began to pace the room. "What do we know about the damn dragon?"</p>
<p>Vraska knew her answer immediately, "he's a piece of-"</p>
<p>"Other than that, what do we know about his plan?"</p>
<p>Vraska looked up at the Sun uncertainty on her face, "he wants the Sun."</p>
<p>Jace stopped and looked at it as well. "And he has an army the size of a plane."</p>
<p>Another pause, then Vraska said: "Ravnica is where he plans to enact his plan." Ravnica was a different world, an ecumenopolis; Vraska's home, and Jace's adopted homeworld.</p>
<p>Jace thought back to when he and some of his companions had fought a minion of Bolas in a filigreed world. "And he has a device to bring his army and the Immortal Sun to Ravnica."</p>
<p>They both stood in silence, necks craned upward, long enough for Jace's to ache.</p>
<p>"All he wants is power," Jace said rubbing his neck.</p>
<p>Vraska's eyes widened in the greenish-blue glow, she looked aghast, and didn't speak for a second, then said one word: "Planeswalkers."</p>
<p>"What'd you say?" Jace asked.</p>
<p>"We're planeswalkers, right? And a Planeswalker is naturally more powerful thanks to our souls, our sparks!" Vraska was talking excitedly using her hands. "He wants to steal planeswalkers' souls!"</p>
<p>"But, that doesn't make sense? You can't steal a spark?"</p>
<p>Vraska furrowed her brow. Then looked back up, and gestured to the Sun. "Well, Azor was able to move his."</p>
<p>Long ago Nicol Bolas' brother had conspired to kill him. He had enlisted the help of the law-mage planeswalker sphinx, Azor. Who had stored his incredibly powerful spark inside the Immortal Sun to act as a battery and a prison for Nicol Bolas. Their plan had failed, trapping Azor on Ixalan. But it had proved something: Planeswalkers sparks, their power, could be transferred. It was not an impossibility for someone to be able to steal a soul.</p>
<p>Jace's face fell, "Ravnica is a hub for planeswalkers. He could be waiting with his army there to trap any who come and then steal their soul. Maybe he even has a way to call them there."</p>
<p>"And he can have Tezzeret"(one of his minions)"move the immortal sun from on and off the world to come and go as he pleases."</p>
<p>They stood in silence as the weight of the dragon's plan, his evilness, bore down on them. </p>
<p>Vraska's voice was filled with poisonous determination as she spoke, "we can't let the bastard do that. We have to save our home."</p>
<p>Jace's face fell, "we can't know that without the Sun, he wouldn't just destroy Ravnica anyways."</p>
<p>Vraska looked ready to cry. "But- but if we let him take this… then we guarantee Ravnica's death."</p>
<p>They looked at each other and nodded in agreement. </p>
<p>They couldn't do it alone. Jace called the fighter's from the room above, and Azor to their room. They talked, and Jace explained everything. Many of them and especially Vraska's crew were astounded to hear that other worlds even existed. But almost all agreed that they had to stop and protect the sun. Not all of them agreed though.</p>
<p>Another trapped planeswalker, a minotaur named Angrath whose fur was flushed with fire, screamed in protest. And stormed from the room promising he'd return with the strength to return and destroy the sun and free himself. When he was asked why he simply looked back and said.</p>
<p>"You know nothing of the pain of a father who worries for his children."</p>
<p>The Vampires of the Legion of Dusk protested. But their Prophet, newly awakened with the discovery of the Golden city of Orazca the home of the Immortal Sun, shot them down. Chastising them for not seeing beyond themselves.</p>
<p>Azor had spent a millennium here on Ixalan, and over the years his mind had warped and gone. But Jace kept him around. Perhaps he could look through the sphinx's mind to find more info. </p>
<p>In the end, they agreed and decided on the leaders. Elenda, Vampire Prophet of the Legion of the Dusk. Huatli, native human planeswalker, and warrior-poet of the people of the Sun. Tishana, Merfolk leader of the River Heralds. And Vraska feared captain of the pirate's Brazen Coalition. They were declared the Defenders of the Sun.</p>
<p>They shook hands and agreed to put aside differences and their self-interests for the sake of defending the Immortal Sun, defending Orazca, defending Ixalan, defending everyone from Nicol Bolas. They would not let this great evil steal the Sun.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Jace and Vraska</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Vraska explains her past and why she hates Azor so much</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Azor flinched with pain as Jace changed the positions of his hand.</p><p>“Sorry, I was changing locations.”</p><p>The sphinx growled back, “I could tell. Maybe a little warning?”</p><p>Jace frowned, annoyed at the sphinx’s rudeness. The two were sitting in the same room underneath the immortal sun; Azor rested his head on the floor like a docile cat, a cat with the face of an old bureaucrat, while Jace circled his hands around the sphinx’s head. Gold walls surrounded them, the room having mostly no features besides a throne, a door, and a pile of straw that Azor had slept on for centuries. Over the centuries Azor had spent on this plane he had slowly lost his mind, and Jace was starting to understand why. Mages’ magic was so closely tied with the mind that when Azor gave up his spark to create the Sun he inadvertently caused himself to go mad. But even before he had made himself mad, Jace could tell, the two would not have gotten along.</p><p>It’d been two weeks since Jace and Vraska had made their decision to stay on Ixalan and protect the Sun. In the meantime, Jace had, regrettably, spent most of his time with Azor. Going through his mind patching holes in the fabric. Jace wished the useless cat would be more grateful, but it was working, slowly Azor was thinking more and more clear.</p><p>Jace heard the sound of boots against gold, the leather kind with layers of thick hide souls, and looked up smiling. His magic dissipated and he gleefully left Azor’s mind to say happily, “Vraska, your back!”</p><p>She stood in the doorway red striped tendrils dancing in the wind(Jace had learned that the tendrils had turned that color because of all the time she now spent in the sun). She had one and on her hip, crooking her head to consider the boy, she smiled warmly.</p><p>“Hello, Jace.”</p><p>Before Azor had the opportunity to lift his head Jace was up and crossing the room to his green captain. He walked right up to her, about a foot away, and stared directly into her magical eyes as he thought.</p><p>It’s lovely to see you.</p><p>Vraska was as surprised as ever, she had finally gotten used to this kind of communication; using Jace's mind magic to open a telepathic pathway between them. No, what surprised Vraska was Jace's earnestness, and his trust made Vraska jealous, as she stared him in the eyes she wondered if she’d ever trusted someone as much as he trusted her.</p><p>Still, dealing with the cat?</p><p>Jace sighed and thought: Yah, but I think we’re almost through, though we've only gone back what seems like half his life. Weirdly he doesn’t seem to really care about remembering the earlier half.</p><p>Vraska looked past Jace to stare at the sphinx. Azor was sitting up, paws crossed looking at them with a cold annoyed, almost disgusted, face.</p><p>You got something to say, housecat?</p><p>You didn’t say that out loud.</p><p>“You got something to say housecat?” Vraska spoke, Jace sighed.</p><p>“To you? No, but to the Living Guildpact. Yes.” Living Guildpact was the title given to Jace only a few years before, he was close to a king there, even though he desperately had never wanted it.</p><p>With his back to Azor, Jace's face sadden, almost screaming, ‘please, I’m tired, don’t make me do this.’ Vraska thought it was cute.</p><p>“Azor, let’s not do this-”</p><p>“You shouldn’t be associated with her. She is beneath you, a vermin. You are the Living Guildpact, you-”</p><p>Vraska’s eyes flared with magic as she took a step forward. “I’ll kill you, you piece of-”</p><p>Jace stepped between them and Vraska bumped into him. Jace sprung backward like Vraska was a hot stove thinking frantically, sorry, sorry, I didn’t mean to touch you!</p><p>Vraska looked away and rubbed her shoulder, It’s fine, she thought.</p><p>Jace’s face softened into knowing sadness as he communicated: I know he is awful. If I thought we didn’t need him I’d banish him to that useless deserted island.</p><p>She looked up at Jace, constrained worry on her face. Wait, I thought that was what we were going to do?</p><p>Yes well, Azor isn’t mad anymore, he is-</p><p>“Mind sharing your conversation with the rest of the room,” Azor said loudly.</p><p>The two stiffened, and Jace looked over his shoulder and said in his most forced overly sweet voice. “Azor, could you please give us a moment?”</p><p>Azor scoffed and thought to himself. Disgusting, talking to that filth, Vraska the Golgari queen. I can’t believe how far the Golgari guild has sunk that she is even a possible queen. The absolute filth.</p><p>“AAAAAAAAAAARGHHH”</p><p>Azor screamed and rolled back on his back, paws desperately pawing at his head. Vraska had jumped back in surprise as Jace had quickly raised a clenched fist swirling with blue magic into the air. Jace held it for a second or two before unclenching his fist, Azor fell silent, panting heavily. Jace spoke in a deadly whisper, but somehow she could hear the whisper echoing like a trumpet in Azor's mind.</p><p>“I told you to call her captain.”</p><p>Azor moaned and said nothing as he strained to pick himself up into a decent pose. The two didn’t care to watch. As Jace had picked apart Azor’s mind he had learned two things, the first was Azor’s weaknesses. Jace knew that if he wanted he could destroy the sphinx’s mind in an instant from a mile away, Azor was helpless against him. The other thing, he told Vraska.</p><p>There is too much there. Centuries of complicated hieromancy magic, in-depth knowledge of Nicol Bolas through Bolas' brother. History going farther back then even the formation of the Guildpact. But mainly it’s his hieromancy. We might- No we will NEED it against Bolas.</p><p>Vraska’s eyes narrowed and she scowled, looking away from Jace. Jace knew she was mad when he felt her close her mind to him and spoke instead.</p><p>“Fine.”</p><p>And with that one word, she turned and left.</p><p>“Vraska wait! Please!” But she didn’t stop moving, she was already to the wretched golden stairs of Orazca before Jace caught up to her. Everyone hated these stairs as there had to be over a thousand steps and a two-hundred-foot elevation gain. They lead down to the abandoned city of Orazca. The cobblestones were gold, the lampposts were gold, even some stupidly heavy doors were gold. Jace vividly remembered the images of humans and merfolk doing back-breaking labor to build the city, a memory he had seen from Azor’s eyes.</p><p>“It’s fine Jace. Leave me alone.” Vraska said not looking at him, she felt tears begin to poke at the corners of her eyes.</p><p>“Clearly it’s not!” Jace stumbled as he tried to keep up with her pace and look at her. She didn't reply for 20 steps so he continued, “please Vraska I know he’s awful, but-”</p><p>“But what Jace!?” Vraska stopped suddenly and Jace’s feet guided him ahead before he could stop.</p><p>“What!? Are you going to defend him?” Vraska threw out her arms as she yelled at him, her tendriled hair flaring outward. “Are you going to say he is a good person deep down? That because he TRIED to stop Bolas, that made him a good person? It doesn’t! He doesn’t feel bad about any of it! Anything he’s done, all the evil he’s caused, all the hate! All the death! ALL THE FAMILIES THAT HAVE BEEN DESTROYED BECAUSE OF HIM!”</p><p>Vraska stood seething, tears running down her face. When she was angry her face stretched, eyes becoming slits of glowing magical light and nostrils flattening into snake-like holes. She didn’t look human in the slightest. But then it broke, her anger melting as if it had been nothing but a thin paper damn. Her face slackened and her shoulders dropped, and her voice cracked as she spoke.</p><p>“He did it… it was someone else who physically did it… But he…” she dropped to the stairs pulling her knees close and hiding her face in her lap. Her usually active tendrils fell limp on her shoulders.</p><p>Jace watched her as she began to cry quietly. Their homeworld was not a utopia. Guilds waged wars against each other, brutal bloody wars. Vraska’s guild, the Golgari, was filled with what most Ravnicans would call monsters or things that didn’t deserve to be called sentient. Even as they hid from the hatred, hiding underground, many did not escape the persecution. Jace wasn’t there for it, but he remembered what the history books had said, and what he had been told. Years ago the Azorius senate, the guild designed by Azor himself had tried to commit genocide against the Gorgons and had murdered hundreds. Had Vraska only survived because her spark ignited? What had they done to her before then? Vraska refused to be touched by anyone, had they?</p><p>Jace reached out a hand and hesitated. Was this the right thing?</p><p>“Vraska…” Jace gulped. “I’m going to touch you.”</p><p>Vraska was shaking now as she cried, Jace focused as to not see the horrific images flashing through her mind. Jace gently let his hand fall on her shoulder before he embraced Vraska fully, sitting on the stairs next to her, she stiffened but did not attempt to push him off. He held her, and she cried. She cried for a long time, sometimes she’d sob into Jace’s shoulder; and sometimes she’d push Jace way to cry into her hands.</p><p>After a long time, she finally fell quiet, leaning against Jace’s chest. She sniffled as she spoke.</p><p>“It wasn’t all of them…”<br/>
Jace looked down at her. He wanted to squeeze her tight to him and never let her go but didn’t dare move.</p><p>“Gorgons… they aren’t a species… it’s a hereditary curse that only affects the females. I don’t remember my mother much, she disappeared soon after having my brother, just never came home one day… Azor was right… we are vermin.”</p><p>“Vraska, no-”</p><p>“We were raised by the Kraul, literal bug people,” she gave a sad little laugh. “They were my real family, them, and my brother. Vactro… he was my world.”</p><p>Vraska pulled away from Jace, leaning forward her elbows on her knees. Her face was so sad, so pensive. Jace leaned forward and rested his knee near hers. Vraska spoke, her voice filled with reflective sadness, “he is probably still alive. When the Senate began their crusade, Mazirek, this one Kraul, and I snuck out late one night. As we were what we were, we could have easily been killed, without legal repercussions, but we knew we had to do it… the Selesnya Guild are nice. We watched as the Selesnian cleric didn’t hesitate to pick up Vactro from the doorstep.” A small tear was sliding down her face, “he’s probably still alive." she repeated. "Somewhere in Ravnica… living a good life… I think about finding him sometimes… but I never will. His life would be ruined if they ever found out his mother was a gorgon.”</p><p>She fell quiet, staring out over the city, gold shining in the sunset. In the distance, they saw the crew of their ship, the Belligerent, partying near the river. Vraska pretended that even from this distance she could see Breeches the goblin pirate using a chisel and hammer to break up a gold door into pocketable pieces. Jace was looking at her, she could tell, but she pretended she didn’t see him. She’d never told anyone what she'd told him. </p><p>Jace held out his hand, palm up near Vraska’s knee. She looked down at it, it was tan and riddled with newly made callouses. She considered it, and slowly she put her hand in his.</p><p>“Thank you,” she said quietly, then added, “sorry.”</p><p>“You’re totally fine. I want to be here for you.” Jace said quietly, giving her hand a small squeeze.</p><p>Vraska looked at him with great concern all over her face.</p><p>Jace was surprised and hurriedly asked, “what’s wrong?”</p><p>She swallowed and said quietly, “I believed you when you said that.”</p><p>Jace smiled as they stared into each other's eyes. Vraska leaned towards Jace.</p><p>Your lips are very soft, thought Jace.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Please critic my work! I live for that sweet juicy constructive criticism! Also come see me at https://chulane-teller-of-memes.tumblr.com/</p><p>More chapters coming!</p></blockquote></div></div>
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